Indians Prospect Insider

The Carolina Mudcats concluded their Virginia road trip with an impressive 3-0 win over the Lynchburg Hillcats on Thursday afternoon. Mudcats’ starting pitcher Mike Rayl earned his third win behind a strong six inning performance featuring four strikeouts, two walks and only two hits. Reliever Trey Haley dominated during his two innings of work with no hits allowed and two strikeouts recorded.

The Akron Aeros lost their home stand finale 7-3 after falling into a deep hole early in the game. Mason Radeke (1-1, 0.00) lost his first game after pitching three innings in a spot start. In the first, Radeke got two quick outs before walking B-Mets second baseman Reese Havens. The next runner reached on a fielding error by shortstop Juan Diaz. Both runners scored on a three-run home run by right fielder Raul Reyes to right center.

In today's Happenings Tony talks about lefty Giovanni Soto who is really coming into his own and has become a nice starting pitching prospect for the Indians. He also touches on Matt LaPorta's continued destruction of Triple-A pitching, gets Akron manager Chris Tremie's thoughts on several players that are working on defense, unveils lefty Scott Barnes' new role, and discussed many other players like Kyle Landis, Mike Rayl, Joseph Colon, Jared Goedert, and more!

The Lake County Captains may not be doing good in the win-loss column, but the talent on the team is probably the most interesting to follow this season. In her weekly "On-Deck" notebook, Lianna recaps the week that was for the Captains with the good/bad hitting and pitching performances and news and notes.

The Indians evened up their three game series with the White Sox on Wednesday night, and today will go for two in a row and take the rubber match. Last night the Indians got big knocks from Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner, Josh Tomlin was steady, and the bullpen continues to be the strength of the team. Charlie Adams breaks the game down and provides his second thoughts...

Matt LaPorta continues to steal the thunder here at ATF, and while it drives this author absolutely insane, it can be nothing but good for the Indians down the road. Jesus Aguilar returned to the spotlight with another big night that should continue his progression. The top slot goes to an under-the-current starter that could very well turn into a top-of-the-rotation star. Jim Pete tears up IPI's Around the Farm: starring Matt LaPorta.

COLUMBUS - An unusual night of baseball at Huntington Park in Columbus Wednesday resulted in the Clippers and Gwinnett Braves splitting two games.
Columbus (14-12) beat the Braves, 3-2, in a seven-inning contest after the two clubs finished a game that was postponed due to rain on Tuesday. Gwinnett won the early game, which started in the top of the fourth inning Wednesday, 7-4.
The late...

The Carolina Mudcats defeated the Lynchburg Hillcats by a score of 5-2 on Wednesday night at Lynchburg City Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia. For the third consecutive game, the victorious team prevailed with five runs while the losing team could only score two. After a scoreless first inning, Lynchburg found some early offense against Mudcats’ starting pitcher Francisco Jimenez.

Akron Aeros southpaw Giovanni Soto pitched seven masterful innings of one-run baseball on Wednesday, carrying the Aeros to a 3-1 win over the Binghamton Mets at Canal Park. The first-place Aeros (17-6) extended their winning streak to eight games. They have won all six games on the current home stand, and are 11-2 at home this season. Akron’s lead in the Eastern League Western Division stands at 4.5 games.

The Lake County bats came alive for 14 hits in Dayton on Wednesday night as they downed the Dragons in a 5-3 victory. The Captains scored first as shortstop Francisco Lindor and catcher Alex Monsalve hit back-to-back singles with one out. Left fielder Bryson Myles, who just returned after missing a week with a hamstring issue, kicked off his comeback with an RBI single to third to plate Lindor, giving the Captains a 1-0 lead.

The Carolina Mudcats have started off the season with a Jeckyl and Hyde approach in nearly all aspects of their season, whether it be road vs. home, and starters vs. bullpen. As they headed out on their second road series, they left their bats in Zebulon. Jim Pete hops back in the outboard as he goes Fishing for Mudcats...

It is Wednesday, which means it is time to take stock on some of the players in the Indians’ minor league system. In today's premium feature, Tony provides prospect stock tips on 20 players, including Beau Mills, Scott Barnes, Cody Allen, Jared Goedert, Steven Wright, Tyler Holt, Mike Rayl, Shawn Armstrong, Alex Lavisky, Cody Anderson and more!

With the imminent arrival of Johnny Damon, the time feels right to take a look at the curious makeup of the 2012 Cleveland Indians roster, specifically the defense which has a little dyslexic feeling about it. A basic baseball axiom preaches for a team’s defensive strength to be built up the middle while the offense comes from the corners, but that's not the case for the Indians says Greg Dew.

Well, that was ugly. Chris Sale was tough on the Indians again as he and the rest of the White Sox' staff held the Indians to 2 runs, their 8th straight game scoring 4 runs or less as well as 16 of 21 games. On top of that, Ubaldo Jimenez was a train wreck and the defense was brutal. All of that is a recipe for a bad loss, which Charlie Adams' gives his "second thoughts" on.

Weather and off-days have been wreaking havoc on the past two-days ATF's, but the beat still goes on. In 2010, tonight's top player was consider a candidate to take over the third or second base job in Cleveland, thanks to a big minor league season. After a setback thanks to an oblique injury, Jason Kipnis, Lonnie Chisenhall and Jack Hannahan stole his thunder, as he finds himself demoted to Akron. Who's tonight's top gun? Tune into IPI's original ATF to find out...after the jump...

The Carolina Mudcats and Lynchburg Hillcats completed their suspended game on Tuesday evening with the Mudcats winning 5-2. The Hillcats took the originally scheduled game, played in seven innings, 5-2 at nights end. Carolina (11-13) left the field last night with a 4-1 lead over Lynchburg (14-9) when heavy fog reduced visibility enough to halt play. The team picked up where they left off as back-to-back walks allowed Carlos Moncrief to drive in a run with a hit. The single increased the Mudcats advantage to 5-1. Lynchburg retaliated with a run in the fifth thanks to a sacrifice fly by Tommy La Stella.

The Eastern League leading Akron Aeros extended their winning streak to seven games with a 6-5 victory over the Binghamton Mets on Tuesday night. Akron starting pitcher lefty T.J. House made his first appearance as an Aero. He had a rocky start hitting the first batter of the game and allowing the Mets to quickly jump out front putting two runs on the board in the first and second innings.

In this week's edition of Launching Off With The Aeros, Jim recaps the 6-0 week that was for the Aeros and the players that helped them achieve their perfect record. Jim also checks in on some more weird/cool stats and players that need to step up their game going forward.

A month into the season the injuries are starting to mount up for the young Indians. Tony has a big update on those players down for some time or just nicked up, including LeVon Washington, Lonnie Chisenhall, Bryce Stowell, Scott Barnes, Hector Rondon and many others. In addition to the injuries, Tony also discusses several other players in the organization such as Steven Wright, Will Roberts, David Huff, Shawn Armstrong, T.J. McFarland, Matt LaPorta, Jeremie Tice and Jeff Johnson.

Like Jack Torrance once said, "Heeeerrreee's Johnny!". This Johnny happens to be Johnny Damon, the new LF for the Indians, and not the father gone mad in "The Shining". Johnny makes his Indians' debut tonight and Jim and Tony will talk about it along with the Matt LaPorta insanity, the Indians in first place and lots more.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!